LEEKY LURRUP

Don’t you just love the name of this tasty Cornish dish! The Larrup, I think, refers to when you “layer up” the pork and veggies. Just wonderful, as is this recipe from the WI Cornish recipes collection.  I am not sure why the recipe would suggest you only use the white part of the leek? The turnip will be swede, of course.

Pre heat your fan oven to 200C and grease a sandwich tin [pie dish?].  I will use as is suggested in the 1960s recipe but a pie dish would be good too.  I lay across the dish two long parchment strips to help me lift it out.

8 oz rough puff pastry

2 large leeks [white part], chopped

1 large [2 medium] peeled potato, sliced

1 slice turnip, cut into small slices

3 large slices streaky belly pork

Seasoning [inc parsley and a little veggie bouillon or cube]

I have given the basic rough puff pastry recipe many times, but for the 8” tin I used:

8 oz plain flour, salt and pepper, 2 oz lard, 2 oz butter and a little cold water to mix. Rub in the fats, then bind with the cold water and lightly knead until smooth, then chill for half an hour at least.

Line the tin with the pastry. Cut the pork into small portions then lay alternate layers of pork, leeks, potato and turnip, [but finish with pork] i.e. three layers of pork and two of veg. More photos on my Blog. Season each layer, sprinkle your stock cube over the top then cover with the remaining pastry and bake until browned.

I did decide to add some herbs, as you all know our forebears did love their parsley! and I am sure they would have used this as part of the seasoning.

Brush the top of the pastry with a little beaten egg or milk, then pop a small hole in the centre.

Bake for about 1 hour - 1¼ hours, depending on the size and turn the oven down after the pastry has browned.

Note: as it cools I think it looks just like a pasty pie - only pork, [probably because I just had to crimp it] with the veggies layered in slices rather than chipped. Great idea and it tasted just wonderful. I made this for Sunday lunch and my family loved it!  I took this photo about half an hour after it came out of the oven and there was so much juice! Heaven on a plate!

The recipe stated to use shortcrust pastry, but I feel it might be too crumbly to hold all the ingredients.

DATE SLICES

Memories of favourite childhood bakes come to mind when I make this traditional Cornish sweet pastry treat. Often made with left over pastry from pasties - or that is what my mother did. It was just wonderful with a dollop of clotted cream on the top, fetched from the farmer’s wife along the road from us. Just perfect.

There is no real recipe here. Just rough puff pastry and dates. I cannot give you quantities as it would depend on how many you want to bake. Lots of pics on my Blog.  But for the 8 slices in the photos x 2, I used:

8 oz plain flour

3 oz cookeen [I am into using this!!]

1 oz butter

very cold water to bind

Just roughly rub in the fat and bind with the water and lightly knead until smooth, then chill for half an hour.

Pre heat your fan oven to 200C 

Dates - these 8 slices used up a packet of chopped dates [200gr]. I tried to get an old fashioned block but my local Asda did not have any. In a dish, place the dates, along with some lemon juice and a little water then mash it all to a paste. [the back of a wooden spoon is handy for this].

Roll out half the pastry to a rectangle then mark the halfway line down the middle of the length. 

Spread out the date paste covering the whole of one half, just leaving a little edge. See pics on my Blog.

Sprinkle over some chopped walnuts, if you like. I do like! Fold over the pastry, leaving an edge to tuck under on the long and short sides. Lift carefully not a baking sheet. Brush with milk if you wish but sprinkle some caster sugar over the top, then mark out the slices, cutting almost the whole way through.

Bake in your pre heated oven for about 25 mins.

Just heavenly.

BOILED RAISINS CAKE

Firstly, after my break, I must thank Nicola for passing on to me the WI Book of Recipes From Cornwall, dated from the 1960s. It is a veritable treasure trove of recipes and I will be making several from the book over the autumn and winter. I will tweak them, adapting to modern tastes but for the most part I will bake as printed, except that almost all recipes use margarine and not butter. There is NO WAY I will be doing that. How times change.

In this lovely fruit cake recipe, the raisins are boiled, not the whole cake! You need to start a couple of hours before you intend to bake. I will quote the book, which is for a 6” cake but I increased the quantities [half as much again] to bake an 8” - my husband would think I had gone bonkers if I made a small cake.

Pre heat you fan oven to 160C [350F] Grease and line the base of your tin.

6 oz raisins

3 oz butter

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

4 oz caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

6 oz plain flour 

½ teacup of the raisin water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the raisins in a saucepan with enough water to cover, bring to the boil, simmering very gently for ten mins then drain the water, leaving both to chill.

Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar. Sieve together the flour and spices, Add the bicarb to the beaten egg. Add the eggy mix, then half the flour with half the raisin water and fruit, mix well, then mix in the remaining half. Tip into your prepared tin and roughly level off.

Bake for 45 mins at 160C, then lower temp to 135C for a further 20 mins or until firm to the touch and nicely browned. Cool on a rack and wait for a day before cutting, if you can. Not easy!

An absolutely beautiful old fruit cake recipe! I can’t wait to bake more from the book.